The SOPA and PIPA laws were defeated in the U.S. just months ago, and already the forces for internet control are back. Up for vote this week, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) would override all privacy laws so that private companies (like ISPs) can share all information with the U.S. government. No warrants or other authorization required. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) points out the problems with this law. Like SOPA and PIPA, the privacy issues and monitoring could reach far beyond U.S. borders.

Seems like a fun idea that people sometimes throw out there, but true adhoc mesh networking has several feasibility barriers today when deployed on a wide scale. 100mw wlan transceivers would require an insanely dense grid to achieve any kind of reliable connectivity, and by that I mean any connection at all. The network would likely deconverge into isolated pools. The network has to be engineered for competing goals such as privacy, routing efficiency, resiliency, and trustworthiness. Even tried and true concepts like rout-able IP addresses break down in an adhoc network with no central authority.

If the network were more organized and a little less adhoc it could work, particularly with more powerful technology like GSM or WiMax. But without government authorization it would likely get shut down just like the pirate radio stations of last century.

So I'm not sure whether a government free internet is viable. Building a privacy aware network ontop of existing networks may be the best option even if it has it's own problems.

"Seriously, it would be a good excuse to get a head start on it before we have to face the reality of having to get off this planet in the future."

For sure, I'm always up for a software engineering challenge. However software engineering isn't always able to get around hardware deficiencies. That's where I think the project would stall if we're dependent upon off the shelf components.

If we avail ourselves to more powerful (and perhaps illegal/unlicensed) custom equipment, then the sky's the limit. Software developers don't generally have those kinds of resources though.

At university I was on a team trying to build mesh networks out of bluetooth devices in the early 2000's. We wrote code for the project, but it was mostly theoretical since the actual bluetooth hardware we had was holding us back.